Alabama lawmakers reached agreement Wednesday on a plan for spending BP settlement money that will give $120 million to Medicaid over the next two years, $120 million to road projects near the coast and $400 million to pay back state debt. Legislators adjourned their special session after reaching that agreement and will return to Montgomery
In June, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management tested for PFOA and PFOS contaminants in drinking water from three Coosa River Basin water systems and found mixed results: None tested above the safe level for contaminants, one system tested well below the top amount considered safe, and two others were near or at the safe line. In response to those results, ADEM conducted another four weeks of testing in July for water systems in Gadsden and Centre, where higher levels of the contaminants were detected. No further testing was deemed necessary for the Coosa Valley Water Supply District. The last of the results from July’s testing is expected next week, according to ADEM. Read more.
Aug. 8 is the last day to register to vote in the Aug. 23 municipal elections. Citizens interested in registering should contact the Board of Registrars in the counties where they live. Voter registration forms also are available and may be submitted at state or county offices that provide public assistance, such as Medicaid, WIC
Drinking water from 12 Alabama water systems has contained more lead than allowed by federal rules at various times since 2010, according to officials with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Tests on drinking water have shown lead levels of up to 72 parts per billion, more than four times the 15 ppb federal limit. But no water system is currently in violation of federal rules for lead. A study released earlier this week showed 5,300 water systems across the country were in violation of the federal rules for lead and copper in 2015. The study, conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was spurred by the discovery of widespread lead contamination of the drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Read more.
Representatives of North Alabama’s West Morgan-East Lawrence Water Authority met with Gov. Robert Bentley’s staff Friday to request bottled water and other alternative sources of water for its 100,000 customers, who are advised not to drink the system’s water for now. The system is operating under an advisory from the Environmental Protection Agency that its water has unsafe levels of PFOS and PFOA contaminants. Read more.
When legislators adjourned sine die, they left the state in important ways as they found it at the beginning of the legislative session in March. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Bills that would have funded major prison construction, increased money for Medicaid, reduced payday loan interest rates and changed teacher tenure and evaluation laws all were introduced but died during the session. That’s not to say legislators did nothing. Read More.
The long-anticipated rewrite of Alabama’s tenure and job evaluation law for teachers and school administrators was introduced in the Legislature last week. It would require regular evaluations of teachers and tie part of their performance rating to student growth. But it does not include the controversial proposal to tie teacher bonuses to student test scores,
